Channing Tatum Wants to Play 'X-Men's' Gambit

The "White House Down" actor reveals that he would "die to play" the fan-favorite X-Man from the 1990s. Somewhere, a new Tumblr fan culture is born.

Not content with leading the G.I. Joe movie franchise, Channing Tatum has been talking about his love for Marvel’s X-Men, and one character from the franchise in particular.

“Gambit is really the only X-Man I’ve ever loved,” the actor told MTV backstage at this weekend’s MTV Movie Awards. “I mean, I’ve loved them all, they’re all great, but I guess just being from down South — my dad’s from Louisiana, I’m from Mississippi, Alabama, Florida — I don’t know, I just related to him.”

According to Tatum, the appeal of the character, who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #266, is that “he’s the most un-X-Men X-Man that’s ever been in X-Men, other than maybe Wolverine, who’s like the antihero. He’s a thief. He’s not even, like, a hero. He’s kind of walking the line of gray. … He loves women and drinking and smoking and stuff, so he’s just a cool guy who happens to have a good moral center.” (Well, clearly not that good of a moral center what with the being a thief thing.)

Tatum said that he’s talked with X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner about the role, and that he “would die to play it. I’m already working on the accent. It’s crappy at the moment.”

Previously, the character appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Taylor Kitsch in the role, but X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singerteased last month that an alternate version of the character may make an appearance in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Keep up those Cajun accent lessons, Channing!